An Unconstructable Indian Ocean: Amitav Ghosh’s Ecological Imaginary in Sea of Poppies and The Great Derangement

In his 2019 book The Unconstructable Earth: An Ecology of Separation, Frédéric Neyrat opposes the idea that, having come very close to destroying Earth in Anthropocene, man can now use geoengineering reconstruct it. Instead, proposes an “ecology separation” which recognizes Earth’s self-regenerating capacity as essentially separate from man’s intrusion, thus suggesting that condition for world survive age increasing apocalyptic dangers is acceptance limitations human agency. This article will argue Amitav Ghosh’s own ecological project, developed 2016 essaybook Great Derangement: Climate Change and Unthinkable, started early historical opium war novel Sea Poppies (2008), narrates ecology separation similar Neyrat’s, a version Graham Huggan Helen Tiffin’s “green postcolonialism” confronts Eurocentric aggression against non-European civilizations nature